Book Review: Divorcing Jack

Reviewed By: Jennifer Jordan

Divorcing Jack     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Colin Bateman
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Dan Starkey # 1
1996, Arcade Mystery/1st Dan Starkey 296 pages

Most of us have had a night or two where, mired in alcohol, bad decisions have been made. I dont for a second think that a complete lack of alcohol would make our protagonist, Dan Starkey, a contender for canonization. But, it would keep me from wanting to box this characters ears as I burst out laughing at his latest installment of a good idea. This perennially soused journalist has a talent for saying the witty thing at the wrong time. The whirlwind of death, danger, politics and sex that picks him up and plunks him down, well the worse for wear, begins with a kiss wrapped around a shared breath mint. A mint shared with a woman he barely knows as his wife whispers in his ears, You have twenty-four hours to move out. This paves the way for bad decision number two and the beginning of a domino effect in Starkeys life. Within the proscribed twenty-four hours, the other woman will be dead and Starkey will be the number one suspect. The one clue that could lead Starkey to the real killer slips through his fingers like a greased eel.

This very funny, very intelligent book could have been a mere candy bar between literary meals. It is, instead, a full meal itself. An insider's view into the raging political scene of Northern Ireland in the mid 90s and the warped marriage of a co-dependent couple are tightly conveyed. The sarcasm and fallibility of a hero doing all the wrong things for all the drunk reasons plays beautifully against the fast paced nature of this thriller.

Jennifer Jordan

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Jennifer Jordan

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